Sheriff looks into potential homicide

Tuesday

Jun 17, 2014 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - Sheriff's detectives are investigating a possible homicide in an abandoned home in unincorporated San Joaquin County south of Lodi, where they found a decomposing male body with an apparent gunshot wound.

The Record

STOCKTON - Sheriff's detectives are investigating a possible homicide in an abandoned home in unincorporated San Joaquin County south of Lodi, where they found a decomposing male body with an apparent gunshot wound.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office received a call about a body found in the 12000 block of Lower Sacramento Road about 2:10 p.m. Sunday, where responding deputies found a dead man in advanced stages of decomposition and with what appeared to be at least one gunshot wound, according to Deputy Les Garcia, a Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Homicide detectives are investigating the case, and the victim has yet to be identified, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The driveway outside the single-story house just north of Armstrong Road had a smattering of garbage in front.

Weeds grew high in front of the house and from between the cracks in the driveway.

All the windows visible from the street were covered in sheets of plywood.

The house had been abandoned for three or four years, said Nestor Mora, 28, a neighbor who lives across the busy street.

Traffic noise between the homes would make it hard to hear anything that would be going on there. And there have been squatters, he said.

"We've seen a couple of them," he said. "But it was a long time ago."

He said it had been about a year since it appeared any squatters had been using the abandoned home. There was a gas leak around that time, he said. After that, the boards went up.